Whitesell served as the associate coach to Oates for all four years of his coaching tenure with the Bulls. Oats ended his four-year run with the Bulls to become the head coach at the University of Alabama back on March 27. He helped Buffalo reach the NCAA tournament three times in four years with the program, and spent 19 weeks this season in the AP's Top-25 poll.

Prior to his tenure in Buffalo, the 59-year-old spent two seasons as an assistant at St. John's, while also serving as an associate head coach at Saint Louis. Whitesell has 34 seasons of college coaching experience, including 24 as a head coach. He went 387-301 with Loyola-Chicago, Division-II Lewis University and Division-III Elmhurst College.